Written by Sharlene Almond – There’s a surprisingly large number of conspiracy theories involving the Freemasons. Everything from political assassinations to the creation of income tax has been attributed to this secretive group. One theory even sees them involved in the mystery of Jack the Ripper, one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers, and it’s[…]

Written by Jake Woodhouse – When a corpse is found, minus its head and with both hands blowtorched to a crisp, Amsterdam cop Inspector Jaap Rykel realises he has something unusual to deal with. Even more disturbing is that the man’s mobile phone contains pictures of Rykel and his houseboat home. Meanwhile a homeless woman[…]

Written by Laura Lippman — If you hadn’t been paying attention, it would be easy enough to miss the fact that Laura Lippman has written a series featuring private detective Tess Monaghan since the late 90s. In recent years, Lippman’s perhaps been better known for her standalone novels, including After I’m Gone, What the Dead Know[…]

Written by Christopher Fowler — London is a city under siege, its angry population taking to the streets to protest at yet another banking scandal which has spewed out onto an already jaded political landscape. In the run up to 5 November, Guy Fawkes Night, thousands of people spill out, their faces hidden behind masks. Violence erupts,[…]

Written by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins – As Mickey Spillane’s literary executor, Max Allan Collins has been doing a great job finding and completing manuscripts by the late author. In fact, this is the fourth such book we’ve reviewed, following on from Lady, Go Die!, Complex 90 and King of the Weeds. The books feature[…]

Written by Ben McPherson – Tapping into the popularity of domestic noir thrillers, debut novelist Ben McPherson makes a brave move as a male writer dipping his toe into a mainly female market. A Line of Blood is told entirely from a father’s point of view. Alex Mercer, his American wife Millicent, and their young son Max, seem to[…]

Written by Lionel Davidson – Lionel Davidson and his thrillers have been unjustly neglected in recent years. He blazed a trail with articulate and complex international spy stories just before John Le Carre and Len Deighton achieved celebrity status. However, a few years ago Philip Pullman selected Davidson’s 1994 novel Kolymsky Heights for his Waterstone’s author table.[…]

Written by Cathy Ace – Cathy Ace has made a name for herself with her cosy mysteries set in foodie-heaven locations like the South of France, Canadian vineyards, Las Vegas and Mexico. The books in her The Corpse… series have all starred intrepid academic Cait Morgan and we’ve reviewed a few of them in the past. The[…]

Written by Jean-Patrick Manchette, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith – It is not fashionable anymore to be a leftist writer of crime fiction. Yet there have been a few crime writers whose works we now consider to be classics who had left-leaning political convictions. Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Dashiel Hammett, Manuel Vazquez Montalban, Stieg Larsson, David Peace and Dominique Manotti[…]

Written by Cilla and Rolf Börjlind, translated by Hilary Parnfors — Spring Tide was one of our favourite debuts of 2014, and now the sequel has arrived. For the second book in their series, husband-and-wife writing duo Cilla and Rolf Börjlind were always going to face the challenge of how to incorporate the revelations in Spring Tide[…]

Written by Oscar de Muriel – Although he works for Scotland Yard, Inspector Frey is shocked when he’s actually sent to Scotland by none other than Lord Salisbury, the prime minister, to look into the case of a murdered violinist. It’s a sensitive issue because the year is 1888 and the man was found with half[…]

Written by SJI Holliday – Deep, dark woods have been the stuff of gripping tales since Red Riding Hood was a lass, so the title of this book is surely enough to alert the reader before they’ve even opened the cover. Twenty-three years ago, in the little town of Banktoun, just a short bus ride away from Edinburgh, two young[…]